A Meeting in Scotland Yard
by Imagine Worlds
Summary: One shot, and my entry to Lolidge19's Professor Layton fanfiction competition. Luke is at Scotland Yard, and meets Bostro again after the events of Lost Future. Their conversation is... interesting.


**This is an entry for Lolidge19's Professor Layton Fanfiction competition. Hope you enjoy! Also, if you're waiting for another chapter of ****_Truth or Dare Awkwardness_****, sorry. I'll get another chapter up as soon as possible! I should probably have a good excuse like exams or homework, but, truthfully, I got Miracle Mask, finished game and every single puzzle bar the challenges and minigames… then decided to start over to get more picarats and accidentally saved it over it and erased everything. Cause I'm an idiot. Also about that story, this one shot is in the same 'world' as the games. For my story, I changed things- notable Luke and Flora's age/s, but this is exactly as the game is.**

**Spoilers for Lost Future.**

**Characters: Luke and Bostro**

**Setting: Scotland Yard**

**Prompt: Picarats and Puzzles**

Luke wiggled around in his seat, trying to make himself comfortable on the unforgiving Scotland Yard bench. Another minute ticked by. Then another. Then another… He was just so _bored. _

He only had another week left in London, after all. His parents would arrive from Misthallery in just a few short days, and then a few days after that the three of them would leave for America together. So of course, Luke wanted to spend his last week having fun and spending time with the Professor.

But at that moment, he was on his own, waiting for his mentor to finish talking to Inspector Chelmey. He didn't resent this (much)- after all, a gentleman must always help those in need, and without the Professor an innocent man could end up getting charged with murder.

Footsteps echoed down the hall, and Luke sat up straight, expecting the Professor to turn the corner and walk towards him with a "Sorry to keep you waiting, my boy. Come on, let's go home." But this expectation went unfulfilled as a man approached, thundering down the corridor.

"Oi, kid! What are you doing here? Get lost!" 'Get lost'? Luke knew that catchphrase.

"Bostro?" Luke wrinkled his nose in confusion. He had once been scared of this man, but not any more. He hadn't seen Bostro since the trial for the imprisonment of Clive and his thugs, and truth be told the boy hadn't expected to see him again.

"'Ey, aren't you that brat from when I was workin' for Clive Dove? The one travelling round with that Professor bloke?" It was slightly worrying that Bostro recognised him- as the young boy who had helped get him arrested. Only slightly though- he wouldn't get violent in the middle of Scotland Yard (hopefully).

"Why do people keep calling me a brat?" Don Paulo, Bostro… Every villain/ hired thug they came across seemed to have an annoying habit of calling Luke a brat, and he didn't know why. Maybe it was his size? He was admittedly a little on the short size for a nearly-fourteen-year-old. He just didn't get it. He knew that their enemies weren't going to like him, but he didn't understand why they all chose that particular insult.

"Whatever. Listen, kid, you don't happen to know where Officer, erm… Officer Hewitt's office is, do ya?"

Wow. That seemed… civilised. Very civilised and reasonable, considering it was Bostro. Almost suspicious. But Luke, being the gentleman-in-training he was , decided to just be nice.

"Umm, no, sorry. Do you have any idea where it is?" Luke asked completely innocently.

"Well no, brat. D'you think I'd be asking where it was if I did?" Bostro seemed more like the thug he'd previously been.

"I suppose not."

A few moments of painfully awkward silence followed.

Standing there.

Just the sounds of breathing.

Almost total silence.

"Well, I do have this map of the building." Despite how much this man intimidated Luke, he couldn't help but slap his hand into his forehead.

"Why didn't you say that before?" The boy looked up at the thug of a man with frustration.

"'Cause I don't understand it, that's why. Some sort o' puzzle or something." Ah. A puzzle!

"A puzzle? Leave it to me. I'm the Professor's apprentice!" Forgetting any intimidation and suspicion earlier caused by the man, Luke jumped at the chance for a puzzle.

The thug silently handed over the map, slightly embarrassed about having to ask for help from a thirteen year old- and the thirteen year old who'd helped get him arrested, at that!

"Hmm… So, we're roughly about _here, _in _this _corridor… And the riddle says Officer Hewitt's office is… Hmm… I think I got it!" He looked up, face almost glowing with pride, visibly excited to have solved it.

"Thanks, brat. So it's down that way, left, left, right, down, up the stairs and left then right again. Okay." Bostro stepped away a bit.

"How many picarats was that worth?" Picarats were a sign of a hard puzzle. The more picarats he earned, the prouder the Professor would be!

"Picarats? What the he… Oh, those point things. Ward blathered on about them from time to time. I dunno. What d'you think I am, the puzzle analyser?" _Analyst. Analyst, _thought Luke, but wisely chose not to say anything.

"Really? You don't know?" Luke sighed. "Okay- on a scale of 10 to 60, how hard do you think that puzzle was? And it can only be a multiple of five."

"Multiple of five? You might as well have a scale of 1-16… Bit pointless if you ask me. Okay then… 10, I guess."

What? That wasn't right! "10?! That puzzle was worth way more than that! 40, at least!"

"No, kid. You're only thirteen, and you could solve it. 20 picarats at most."

"You couldn't solve it either!" Luke was, after all, a child, and this really showed at that moment.

"Oh, shut up brat. I couldn't be bothered solving it, that's all." Excuses.

"Then why did you look so confused by it?"

"… 40 picarats it is. Just have them." Luke was happy now. 40 picarats! All by himself, too. The Professor would be proud of his apprentice number one!

A moment's pause.

"If it's not too bold to ask, what are you doing here?" Luke was a curious child, no more explanation needed.

"Well, after all that business with fake London and all, the police didn't let me go, but luckily they didn't put me inside either. Got away with community service, thank God. Anyway, I gotta see Hewitt to see what stupid place they're making me clean this weekend." That explained a lot.

"Why just you? Where are the other thu- I mean, minio- I mean, the other people who worked for Clive?" Yikes.

"Thugs? Minions? This ain't a movie, brat! We're people too. And to answer the question, I don't know. Inside mainly- the Dove thing, and most have criminal records anyway." Fair enough. "Thanks for the puzzle solving thing, kid. Enjoy the picarats, I guess. Gotta go." And with that, Bostro thundered away.

_'__He was actually quite aimable. Not as aggressive as he seemed before. I guess the underground London thing was just a job for him…' _Oh. _'Oh. I'm on my own again. Great. Surely the Professor can't be much longer…'_

Luke settled down on the unforgiving Scotland Yard bench, waiting some more.

Paste your document here...


End file.
